Arlen Specter Tanking In PA

53 percent of Pennsylvania voters said that they would prefer to elect someone new to replace Specter in 2010, according to a Susquehanna Polling and Research survey released over the weekend. 38 percent of voters said they supported the long-serving Republican senator in his reelection efforts. Eight percent said they were undecided.

Perhaps more disturbingly for Specter, the demographic with the most desire to see someone new elected is not Democrats, but rather other Republicans.

66 percent of Pennsylvania Republicans said the state should elect someone new, while 26 percent said they supported Specter's reelection.

Personally, I'm one for being realistic about the kinds of Republicans some states are going to elect. If we limit Republicans in the Senate to the Jeff Sessions types, we'll never have a majority there. Pennsylvanian however can do better than Arelen Specter. Remember, Rick Santorum won two terms there not long ago and while he was blown out, it was in a very Democratic year (2006) and to a guy who was pretending to be a moderate while trading on his father's name.

This looks like a promising battle in the fight for the soul of the party.
RELATED: Pat Toomey says a possible challenge to Specter is "back on the table".